6 ms·

What are boot times like? I see a lot of text-editing environments geared towards "distraction-free, focused editing" but not a lot of innovation on an OS focu

What are boot times like? I see a lot of text-editing environments geared towards "distraction-free, focused editing" but not a lot of innovation on an OS focused on the same experience. I would like to see such a "writing OS" that boots to a text editor in less than a second. Maybe this OS is a candidate?

mdp2021 3y ago
It was said to boot in 5s twenty years ago... The hardware compatibility list shows a promising number of machines ( http://www.menuetos.net/hwc.txt http://www.menuetos.net/hwc.txt ). If you have a spare one, you could try and report. There is a chance that you will achieve a very fast boot time. -- AROS (Amiga) could reboot in ~7s, ~15yrs ago. And you can do more than you can with MenuetOS. Again, today you will probably break that record. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yNIuNnBrWg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yNIuNnBrWg Edit: You can see here a recent AROS booting in 3s (it is not clear if it is bare metal though): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s_TfmF-_iE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s_TfmF-_iE
- haolez 3y ago
  It was even faster than that. I remember it being almost instantaneous. And you could even play Doom!
- hotnfresh 3y ago
  Last time I ran it, Lakka (a Linux disto for Retroach emulation appliances) booted in 5s or less on an RPi2, to a usable graphical menu, complete with particle effects or whatever if you have that stuff enabled.
  - JPLeRouzic 3y ago
    on a 1.44MB floppy?
    - hotnfresh 3y ago
      Nah, but QNX could maybe do it still :-) 1.44 MB floppy read times might prevent sub-5-second boots to a GUI, though. I can’t really remember how fast things like that booted from a floppy, anymore.
- brirec 3y ago
  I’m pretty sure that 5s time 20 years ago was on a 1.44MB floppy, too. A real floppy! Not something emulated.
- tuetuopay 3y ago
  > You can see here a recent AROS booting in 3s (it is not clear if it is bare metal though): The virtualbox window is pretty clear to me :D
  - mdp2021 3y ago
    Youngsters, bragging about their good eyes... ;) Anyway: I thought I have here a laptop I have to initialize, maybe I will install IcarOS on it as soon as I will have the time. So, we will see how it behaves on bare metal.
    - tuetuopay 3y ago
      Or just having overly-large screens. Or just going back to the video after reading the comment :p IcarOS seems like a fun thing to play with. Don't go too deep in the obscure OS rabbithole, it's indefinitely deep.
- vidarh 3y ago
  I used to have a setup where I'd boot the Linux-hosted version of AROS (so not nearly the same as booting from scratch certainly) straight into FrexxEd, and it started AROS + FrexxEd faster than my Emacs install started on the same box...
mike_hock 3y ago
Faster than you can say "what are boot times like" from what I remember. But it's not a practically usable OS, it's more like a study in how far you can get with pure assembly. Though if a text editor is really all you want, it might be good enough.
- ianai 3y ago
  Might be pretty close to enough with a good ssh client and terminal. It’s probably actually real time which is neat for FOSS.
- pjerem 3y ago
  It was also how far you can go running an entire OS from a diskette. And it was really impressive.
  - hollander 3y ago
    CP/M with Wordstar plus dbase all on one 180kB floppy
thomaslord 3y ago
I don't know if much innovation is really required, honestly. You probably won't find what you're looking for with Mac/Windows, but if you run a tiling window manager like i3 on Linux you'll pretty much just see a clock, some system stats, and whatever applications you have open on the screen. You can pretty easily configure the bottom bar to remove the superfluous system stats, or even the clock if you want. Is that the kind of experience you'd look for in a distraction-free OS? If not I'd be interested to hear your ideas - I use i3 for work but manage to distract myself anyway because I always have a web browser open.
- eru 3y ago
  I'm running XMonad on Linux, and I don't see any clock or system stats, because I don't run that. No bottom (nor top etc) bar for me. (You can add such bars in XMonad, just like you can remove them from i3.)
- prmoustache 3y ago
  If you truly want focused you don't even need a window manager, you aren't even forced to run x11 or wayland but if so just put your favorite text editor desktop file in /usr/share/xsessions is enough.
  - mftrhu 3y ago
    If you really, really want focused you can just drop everything and replace init with your editor http://informatimago.free.fr/i/linux/emacs-on-user-mode-linux.html http://informatimago.free.fr/i/linux/emacs-on-user-mode-linu...
    - prmoustache 3y ago
      Yes however I don't think you would have the network in that case[1], which might be handy to automatise backups. [1] unless you start it from emacs which is also totally possible
    - wiz21c 3y ago
      you'll be distracted by your eternally changing .emacs configuration file :-)
aidenn0 3y ago
On any recent PC, I find that more than half the time booting Linux to a GUI is in POST. [edit] And 5 seconds for DHCP if you are using dhcp
drewzero1 3y ago
When I used it (and Kolibri, Floppix, and QNXdemo) in the mid-2000s it was mostly down to the speed of the floppy drive. So about the same as loading Windows 10 from a conventional (spinning rust) hard drive.
eru 3y ago
You don't need a new OS for that. You can do that as a Linux distribution just fine.
- velcrovan 3y ago
  Maybe with heavy hacking, but not ready-made, at least that I’ve found. Certainly don’t seem to be any distros (in the casual searching I do periodically) that focus on 1-second boot times out of the box.
  - eru 3y ago
    You might like https://www.benjamin-schieder.de/nethacklinux.html https://www.benjamin-schieder.de/nethacklinux.html Replace nethack with your favourite editor, and it might just work. (Well, also replace the floppy disk with something faster.)
rurban 3y ago
Faster than the BIOS. Under a second
marttt 3y ago
Haven't tested recently, but FreeDOS (or SvarDOS) boots in a couple of seconds. The kernel is ridiculously minimal. From there, you could launch a text editor via autoexec.bat and voila. It is a fun system, too. Years ago, I found a bootable USB project on Github with a tiny custom Linux kernel that only launched vi. IIRC, my computer's fan was always running full speed with it, though.

mdp2021 3y ago

It was said to boot in 5s twenty years ago... The hardware compatibility list shows a promising number of machines ( http://www.menuetos.net/hwc.txt http://www.menuetos.net/hwc.txt ). If you have a spare one, you could try and report. There is a chance that you will achieve a very fast boot time. -- AROS (Amiga) could reboot in ~7s, ~15yrs ago. And you can do more than you can with MenuetOS. Again, today you will probably break that record. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yNIuNnBrWg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yNIuNnBrWg Edit: You can see here a recent AROS booting in 3s (it is not clear if it is bare metal though): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s_TfmF-_iE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s_TfmF-_iE

haolez 3y ago
It was even faster than that. I remember it being almost instantaneous. And you could even play Doom!
hotnfresh 3y ago
Last time I ran it, Lakka (a Linux disto for Retroach emulation appliances) booted in 5s or less on an RPi2, to a usable graphical menu, complete with particle effects or whatever if you have that stuff enabled.
- JPLeRouzic 3y ago
  on a 1.44MB floppy?
  - hotnfresh 3y ago
    Nah, but QNX could maybe do it still :-) 1.44 MB floppy read times might prevent sub-5-second boots to a GUI, though. I can’t really remember how fast things like that booted from a floppy, anymore.
brirec 3y ago
I’m pretty sure that 5s time 20 years ago was on a 1.44MB floppy, too. A real floppy! Not something emulated.
tuetuopay 3y ago
> You can see here a recent AROS booting in 3s (it is not clear if it is bare metal though): The virtualbox window is pretty clear to me :D
- mdp2021 3y ago
  Youngsters, bragging about their good eyes... ;) Anyway: I thought I have here a laptop I have to initialize, maybe I will install IcarOS on it as soon as I will have the time. So, we will see how it behaves on bare metal.
  - tuetuopay 3y ago
    Or just having overly-large screens. Or just going back to the video after reading the comment :p IcarOS seems like a fun thing to play with. Don't go too deep in the obscure OS rabbithole, it's indefinitely deep.
vidarh 3y ago
I used to have a setup where I'd boot the Linux-hosted version of AROS (so not nearly the same as booting from scratch certainly) straight into FrexxEd, and it started AROS + FrexxEd faster than my Emacs install started on the same box...

mike_hock 3y ago

Faster than you can say "what are boot times like" from what I remember. But it's not a practically usable OS, it's more like a study in how far you can get with pure assembly. Though if a text editor is really all you want, it might be good enough.

ianai 3y ago
Might be pretty close to enough with a good ssh client and terminal. It’s probably actually real time which is neat for FOSS.
pjerem 3y ago
It was also how far you can go running an entire OS from a diskette. And it was really impressive.
- hollander 3y ago
  CP/M with Wordstar plus dbase all on one 180kB floppy

thomaslord 3y ago

I don't know if much innovation is really required, honestly. You probably won't find what you're looking for with Mac/Windows, but if you run a tiling window manager like i3 on Linux you'll pretty much just see a clock, some system stats, and whatever applications you have open on the screen. You can pretty easily configure the bottom bar to remove the superfluous system stats, or even the clock if you want. Is that the kind of experience you'd look for in a distraction-free OS? If not I'd be interested to hear your ideas - I use i3 for work but manage to distract myself anyway because I always have a web browser open.

eru 3y ago
I'm running XMonad on Linux, and I don't see any clock or system stats, because I don't run that. No bottom (nor top etc) bar for me. (You can add such bars in XMonad, just like you can remove them from i3.)
prmoustache 3y ago
If you truly want focused you don't even need a window manager, you aren't even forced to run x11 or wayland but if so just put your favorite text editor desktop file in /usr/share/xsessions is enough.
- mftrhu 3y ago
  If you really, really want focused you can just drop everything and replace init with your editor http://informatimago.free.fr/i/linux/emacs-on-user-mode-linux.html http://informatimago.free.fr/i/linux/emacs-on-user-mode-linu...
  - prmoustache 3y ago
    Yes however I don't think you would have the network in that case[1], which might be handy to automatise backups. [1] unless you start it from emacs which is also totally possible
  - wiz21c 3y ago
    you'll be distracted by your eternally changing .emacs configuration file :-)

aidenn0 3y ago

On any recent PC, I find that more than half the time booting Linux to a GUI is in POST. [edit] And 5 seconds for DHCP if you are using dhcp

drewzero1 3y ago

When I used it (and Kolibri, Floppix, and QNXdemo) in the mid-2000s it was mostly down to the speed of the floppy drive. So about the same as loading Windows 10 from a conventional (spinning rust) hard drive.

eru 3y ago

You don't need a new OS for that. You can do that as a Linux distribution just fine.

velcrovan 3y ago
Maybe with heavy hacking, but not ready-made, at least that I’ve found. Certainly don’t seem to be any distros (in the casual searching I do periodically) that focus on 1-second boot times out of the box.
- eru 3y ago
  You might like https://www.benjamin-schieder.de/nethacklinux.html https://www.benjamin-schieder.de/nethacklinux.html Replace nethack with your favourite editor, and it might just work. (Well, also replace the floppy disk with something faster.)

rurban 3y ago

Faster than the BIOS. Under a second

marttt 3y ago

Haven't tested recently, but FreeDOS (or SvarDOS) boots in a couple of seconds. The kernel is ridiculously minimal. From there, you could launch a text editor via autoexec.bat and voila. It is a fun system, too. Years ago, I found a bootable USB project on Github with a tiny custom Linux kernel that only launched vi. IIRC, my computer's fan was always running full speed with it, though.